Editors ́ Picks

Sleeping rough in Britain’s coolest city

EDITOR:

Maria João Morais, Madrid

At the end of last year, Bristol became the latest property hotspot in the UK, with housing prices rising by 9.6%, compared to 8.9% in Manchester and 8% in London. Although the price hike cooled during the first half of 2017, the truth is that house prices remain increasingly unaffordable for many people.

A dynamic and vibrant city, with bustling nightlife and cultural scenes, the capital of the West Country was even recently voted the UK’s coolest city. However, strolling along the regenerated Harbourside or trendy neighbourhoods such as Stokes Croft and Bedminster reveals a painful reality. As people commute, shop, or go for a drink, the scores of people sleeping on the street, coupled with shocking statistics, lay bare to the scale of homelessness in Bristol.

After all, rising house prices and homelessness are two realities that go hand in hand. Therefore, it is unsurprising that homelessness has been constantly rising in Bristol in the past years, reaching twice the UK average, according to government figures. The problem, however, is not unique to Bristol and is clearly visible in many other British cities, as rough sleeping has risen by 16% since last year. Despite a low unemployment rate in the UK, dramatically many people simply cannot afford the high cost of housing.

Britain’s social tragedy of homelessness is a direct result of Conservative policy that has led to huge shortages of social housing, intensely affecting the poor in London and other cities. In the capital, inequalities are especially stark with cramped, low-quality, high-rise tower blocks such as Grenfell tower, accommodating the poor in dangerous and inadequate housing.

Paradoxically, only a stone’s throw away lies the infamous Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, where staggeringly there is a street of abandoned and unused mansions. In fact, in England alone there are more than 200,000 empty houses. The disuse of these homes in a country where homelessness is a glaring issue does little more than inflate house prices, whilst exposing the contradictions that perpetuate and exacerbate inequalities in the UK.

Although many people continue to turn a blind eye to the housing problem in Britain, the Grenfell tower tragedy has exposed what some preferred to remain invisible. From now on, authorities cannot keep ignoring the ever-worsening housing crisis and must provide effective policy solutions to prevent the country’s social fabric from being torn apart.

07.Aug

August 07th, 2017

Google should do a soul-search

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

In a famous lecture, David Foster Wallace asked his audience to always remember that the world they see is not objective reality, but one skewed by the myriad internal prejudices and tastes which they, as perceivers, bring to bear. He argued that these conditioned biases were so part of our make-up, we wouldn't notice them, and mistake them simply for the world; just as a fish might not realise that it swims about in water.

The recent Google scandal made me think of this lecture for two reasons:

Firstly, it attempts to work in a similar area of unconscious bias.

It illustrates once again that the products and services we produce and use do not exist in vacuums, but are inflected with the prejudice, bias and thoughts of the producers.

So what is the scandal exactly? A software-engineer at Google internally circulated a 10-page document which argued against the company's hiring policy, and general commitments to diversity. That is, it stated that the company was unconsciously (or very consciously) left-wing; and furthermore, its policies of hiring using positive discrimination were "morally" wrong, since this discrimination meant that biologically-better-suited people missed out on jobs. To clarify, the screed argued that men are simply biologically better at software engineering, maths, computer science etc. than women; and by implication, white people better than other ethnicities at this kind of work.

If you're the kind of low-iq specimen that likes to marvel at biologically-superior brainpower, here's the full thing.

The engineer claims that he values "diversity and inclusion, [and is] not denying that sexism exists, and [does not] endorse using stereotypes." And yet, a mere paragraph or so later, makes these kinds of claims: "Women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things". This is the well-written version of 'I'm not racist, but-'.

Tech and startups in the West are overwhelmingly white and male. It's been speculated that the reason for this, is that computer science is an overwhelmingly male course; and the reason for that is, universities haven't been able to reach more women to apply for these courses - the same goes for ethnicities. So it's a structural problem: the kinds of route into tech are tailored to men. Having worked in these fields myself, I can say there is a weird-amount of pseudo-scientific rationalisation in the field which 'explains' why women and minorities are excluded from the field - and the Google document is one more version of this rationalisation.

And yet, Google is one of the most influential companies on the planet. If it is designed by people who think like this, then the product will inevitably be affected. Get wise Google - do a soul-search: People do not want this from you.

03.Aug

August 03rd, 2017

Afghan women fight to get their names back with #WhereIsMyName

EDITOR:

Shira Jeczmien, London

“I joined the #WhereIsMyName campaign. My name is Akram. The name of the Mother of My Children? I will not say it even if I am ripped into pieces.” Wrote a male Afghan Facebook user on his status a few days ago.

In just a few pixelated sentences Akram has summarised a cultural tradition that erases women’s identities so systematically, that being ripped into pieces is a more comprehensible alternative. With this status he also undermines the power of a new social media activist campaign that is fighting to terminate Afghanistan’s custom where a woman’s name can never be revealed in public – not even on her grave; not even on her children’s birth certificates.

A group of Afghan women have launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #WhereIsMyName, encouraging women to regain the most basic of human rights: their identity. In a society of female repression and a fear of speaking up, this campaign wants to empower women to demand their name is acknowledged in their children’s birth certificates, on their medical prescription, or the simplest privilege of being called by their name. "Our society is full of injustice for women, basically everything is a taboo for us" says activist Bahar Sohaili, a prominent member of the campaign.

There are plenty of options for men to chose from when it comes to referring to their wives, sisters; mothers. Mother of Children, My Household, My Weak One or sometimes, My Goat, My Chicken or even My Milker – and regardless of their status, be they doctors, journalists or politician’s wives, the common address for Afghan women is Aunt. Breaking of this tradition is considered a violence worthy dishonour. The shame associated with publically saying a woman’s name runs so deep that some children don’t know their own mother’s name.

Thousands of Afghan authors, journalists, musicians and a few politicians have backed the campaign on social media with the support of growing access to Internet across the country. "There is a very influential generation of Afghans who are being exposed to the outside world and these young people are using every opportunity to challenge” said Niamatullah Ibrahimi, researcher of social and political movements in Afghanistan. Access to the web has spurred a profound movement of social change across the nation, and while the fight to challenge social norms so deeply rooted in society isn’t easy, #WhereIsMyName goes straight to the heart of it – hoping to bring back the names of powerful and brave women who have, for too long, been reduced to household, motherhood, wife.

02.Aug

August 02nd, 2017

The unique nexus between resilient African cities and informal economy

EDITOR:

Bob Koigi, Nairobi

An unprecedented exodus of rural population to cities in search of better lives, and a limited and under resourced urban infrastructure are chocking the African cities even as the continent remains the fastest urbanizing in the world. Already growth averages 3.4 per cent with the population in cities expected to hit the 1.2 billion mark by the year 2050.

Yet for the dwellers it is a tough call, what with African cities being the most expensive and those migrating there finding themselves worse off than they were before. In fact numerous studies have posited that housing is about 55 per cent more expensive in African cities than it is elsewhere with the urbanites spending on average 59 per cent of their budget on food alone.

And while urbanization has historically been tied to industrialization with key cities like Manchester attracting a growing population due to the booming manufacturing sector, urbanization in Africa has been inspired by knee jerk and hazy reasons.

So we end up with huge population that cannot get meaningful jobs while putting a strain even on the basic of resources like water, housing and food. The result has been a cropping up of shanties, and boom in the informal economy. And while it has been a painful survival story for a majority of the estimated 60 per cent that live in these informal settlements, the informal economy in the African cities has been crucial in absorbing millions, fighting crime and generally building up resilience. Think about the street food vendors who meet the cardinal needs of the bottom of the pyramid populace, or the garbage collectors who transform the waste eyesore into manageable waste albeit to eke a living. And with the expected population boom in the cities, demand for their services will only grow.

Which is why as industry players deliberate on the most ideal pillars to build shocks against imminent threats to African cities, they have to be guided by inclusivity in making this vital constituency an integral aspect of the resilience agenda.

African cities more than any other will definitely continue experiencing shocks like pressure on housing, transport and security even as emerging ones like climate change become an everyday reality. The degree of resilience also lies in understanding the complex catalysts that trigger the risks then mapping out solutions on a case to case basis. No single one solution can claim to be a magic bullet, but addressing for example decent and affordable housing would automatically address concomitant problems like waste management.

01.Aug

August 01st, 2017

Returning Barcelona to its people

EDITOR:

Maria João Morais, Madrid

Rarely have the Olympic Games transformed a city to such a great extent. Barcelona, ​​which this year marks its 25th anniversary of hosting the sporting event, has reasons to celebrate its development, but could also become a victim of its own success. After the 1992 Olympics, the new Barcelona became cosmopolitan, innovative and creative, which led to a huge rise in tourism. In little more than two decades, the number of annual visitors to the capital of Catalonia rose from 1.7 million to a figure close to 9 million.

As in so many other cities, tourism in Barcelona has its bright and dark sides. It generates 15% of the city's GDP, employs thousands of people and provides extra income to those who have more than one bedroom in their house. But when numbers become excessive, problems inevitably arise. Recent studies show that tourism is today considered by Barcelona’s inhabitants its most serious problem. The speculative pressure is leading to illegal tourist apartments and is trapped in a real estate bubble that prices out residents and small businesses from the city centre.

It’s certainly not a phenomenon unique to Barcelona. But what´s intriguing about the Catalan capital is that its mayor was a former housing activist, who has demanded the right to live in the city as a priority. After several years as a spokesperson for the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (an association that defends people at risk of eviction due to unpaid mortgage loans after Spain´s property market collapse in 2008), Ada Colau became Barcelona’s mayor in 2015.

Since then, she has quadrupled investment in housing policies, begun regulating construction of new hotels whilst limiting the allocation of short-term renting licenses.

Most strikingly is Colau´s battle against Airbnb, the online platform that triumphs around the world. Having become the first city in the world to fine the multinational (600,000 euros), Barcelona has launched further measures. Property inspectors have already identified 2000 illegal apartments that the company was forced to remove from their site.

Critics claim such measures are slow to show results, but Barcelona under Colau´s leadership is moving in the right direction and joining other cities such as Berlin or Amsterdam, in protecting local residents from the aggression of property speculators. Residents and the local community are the soul of a city and once forced out the city loses its identity. Therefore, guaranteeing the right to good-quality, affordable housing in their own city should be, as in Barcelona, ​​the priority of any mayor.

31.Jul

July 31st, 2017

Slavery is more lucrative than it has ever been

EDITOR:

Gurmeet Singh, Berlin

A thing that it is often overlooked in popular discussions of the slave trade is the 'trade' part of the equation; so much, rightly, is focussed on the 'slaves' - who they were, where they were from etc. - that the actual economics and actors of the trade are forgotten. Even in pretty straightforward depictions of power, for example in the 2012 movie Lincoln, for example, we see Abraham Lincoln discussing the morality, the rationale, the effort behind ending slavery - and never once mentioning the idea that slavery, as it was practiced, was becoming more and more inefficient, if not entirely unprofitable (see, for example, Edward E. Baptist's book 'The Half that Has Never Been Told').

Slave-traders were entrepreneurs, just like any other business person; their commodity was human capital, human labour, human flesh. There were many acknowledged forms of labour, such as picking cotton, tilling land etc. but there were also unacknowledged forms of labour, such as sexual services for the slave owner, and the production of new slaves through pregnancy. It was an area where an entrepreneur could make a fortune from the exploitation of other human beings, from birth to death.

And yet, today, slave traders can make 25-30 times more money than their 18th and 19th century counterparts. What's more, this isn't just down to inflation.

The UNODC’s Global Report on Human Trafficking, released last December, concluded that no country is immune from the crime of slavery. It identified more than 500 different trafficking “flows” or major routes between 2012-2014; with sex-trafficking being the most profitable type of slavery in each of these flows.

But there is also hope - some researchers, such as Kevin Bale, at the University of Nottingham and Founder of Free the Slaves has argued that with as little as 23 Billion dollars of investment, slavery in all of its forms could be eliminated within two generations. That is an investment worth making: this trade needs to be destroyed - it's the only way people will stop trading in human lives.

28.Jul

July 28th, 2017

An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth

EDITOR:

Shadi Khan Saif, Kabul

In a second gruesome incident of the sort, a local elders’ council in Pakistan’s Punjab province ordered rape of a girl in revenge of a rape allegedly committed by her brother.

The incident took place earlier this week in Multan city not far away from the spot where the infamous ‘Mukhtara Mai Gang rape’ took place on the directives of a similar elders’ council in 2002. Mai braved all the disgrace and fear that are associated with a rape victim in conservative Pakistan to went on and become global icon against rape. She was celebrated worldwide, also hailed by many in Pakistan for her courage to stand-up and speak against the ‘panchayat’ (village council) systems that is based on outdated tribal norms, but all that failed to put an end to the miseries of young women and girls even in her own village let alone the whole country.

As per the police report details, the elders’ council – comprising at least 40 men – was convened in Muzaffarabad's Rajpur in the country’s biggest Punjab province after a 12-year-old girl was raped by a man while cutting grass in a field on July 16. Two days later on July 18, the ‘panchayat’ ordered the victim’s brother to rape 17-year-old sister of the accused. According to the police, the girl was dragged to the area where the ‘panchayat’ was convened and was raped before the men and her parents.

After the incident, the parents of victim filed a police report on July 20, while a second report was filed on July 24 by accused family, who had initially wished to keep the matter quiet. After the cases were registered, the police started investigations and arrested 20 of the council's members, including the head of the ‘panchayat’ who gave the order. Search operations for the remaining men are underway.

If Delhi is called as the ‘rape capital of India’ by the concerned citizens of that country due to the high rate of rapes, such decisions of the so-called-elders in Pakistan equally demonstrate the sick mentality that see women and girls as senseless objects for men’s pleasure rather than souls with feelings and emotions.

27.Jul

July 27th, 2017

Are London acid attacks a reflection of our time?

EDITOR:

Shira Jeczmien, London

Walking down East London’s Bethnal Green Road this morning, I find it hard to think of much else than the acid attack that took place just around the corner on Monday evening. For the reward of petty theft, two men were attacked with acid and left with life altering injuries.

This was the latest in a surge of acid assaults suddenly placing the UK, and London especially, as one of the world’s highest in noxious-substance crime, with a 65% rise from 450 incidents in 2016.

There’s much to be said around this visceral trend in crime; much to be questioned at that too. The first that comes to mind is how injuries caused by corrosive substances are so swiftly flagged as “non life-threatening” when the physical disfiguration, as well as the psychological impact can hardly be argued as other than life-threatening. Quickly following is how to crack down on a weapon that essentially can be carried legally until it is used otherwise. And just behind on the list is a slightly more sociological and perhaps less answerable question; why the rise in this particularly violent, vicious crime and what can that tell of the ubiquitous hatred that surrounds us?

Acid attacks have unfortunately been around for much longer than they’ve made headway in the British press. Their prominence is often linked to domestic violence in more patriarchal societies, and it is very present in countries such as India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Uganda, with Pakistan most widely reported for its attacks.

Colombia however, where acid assaults are equally rife, recently succeeded in reducing its numbers by imposing a 12 to 50 year sentence for the crime. In the case of the UK, a connection could be drawn between the rise of this abominable crime and the lack of legislation holding acid attacks in the high ranking punishment it deserves. Instead, it is currently merely regarded as Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) or Actual Bodily Harm (ABH), which are both, at worst, only carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment.

In contrast to the often close social circle attackers seen in other countries, the nature of acid attacks in the UK differs from the largely misogynistic agenda it promotes elsewhere; Men have attacked other men and at random. In a society that cherishes individuality, these are attacks on precisely that, altering the victim’s identity indefinitely. “In a culture of choice, all choices are removed. The attacker is supreme” writes journalist Deborah Orr, and it’s the unimaginable absence of empathy enacted with this crime that makes it tragically fitting in our world today.

In Kenya’s Western region deemed to be the country’s food basket, locals have over the years relied on subtle signs from the environment that would be missed by ordinary eyes, to interpret some of the most important phenomena to their daily lives.

The croaking of frogs, the way birds chirp, the flowering and shedding of leaves of select trees or the mating patterns of certain animals have been key pointers to important occasions like imminent rains or drought which help the community plan beforehand. These practices have been passed across generations.

In Central African Republic residents have embraced certain trees for their medicinal value and have been hailed over the years as crucial in averting major disease outbreaks.

These phenomena reverberates across the continent and have always proven potent in tackling some of Africa’s biting problems including diseases, poverty and drought. But even as globalization threaten to relegate them to the annals of history, science has indeed found value in majority of them, if the investments by major players are anything to go by.

Global drug manufacturing companies have sunk billions in botanical gardens and research in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon as they seek to tap into the science behind these magic. The World Health Organization has given a clean bill of health to some of these indigenous plants, recognizing their immense contribution to global health. World Bank has on the other hand documented numerous cases of the role indigenous knowledge has played in development of mankind.

Even as westernization and modernity threatens to stymie the role of indigenous knowledge in today’s society, it is commendable to see researchers and scientists take time and invest resources in learning how traditional knowledge has furthered resilience and cushioned local populations from traditional and emerging threats.

Indeed civilization is as old as indigenous knowledge because it has borrowed heavily from some of these practices, key among them, the art of survival.

It is therefore imperative that as science advances, it is guided by the basics that define it, and indigenous knowledge has demonstrated over the years that it can handle even the pressing problems of the 21st century while furthering development. But even as science courts tradition it calls for protection of the rights of indigenous people over their traditional knowledge and giving them a place in modern scientific debate if we are to stay ahead of modern day threats.

Photo: UNESCO

25.Jul

July 25th, 2017

Warsaw’s move towards authoritarianism threatening EU integrity

EDITOR:

Maria João Morais, Madrid

Last week Poland´s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) once again showed its determination in becoming an authoritarian and undemocratic government. The far right-wing party, commandeered by Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, passed a new law in both the Parliament and Senate that would place the country’s Supreme Court under government control. According to the new reform, ministers would have the power to select judges and members of the country’s highest court, undermining the independence of Polish justice and weakening confidence in the rule of law free from political intrusion.

The controversial bill sparked massive public unrest from thousands of people who attended nationwide demonstrations against the new reform. This Monday, President Andrzej Duda finally succumbed to the mounting pressure from the multiple popular protests, announcing he will veto the bill. It is the first time that Duda, former member of PiS, has openly disagreed with the party of the government, directed under the shadow of former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Such legal changes could deeply compromise basic principles of freedom, justice and democracy. Unfortunately, this undemocratic direction set out by PiS is not entirely new. The nationalist party has, since arriving to power in October 2015, been launching a series of reforms that demonstrate its move towards authoritarianism. After journalists were denied entry to Parliament, public media and NGOs have been put under tight governmental control. Last year, after threatening to totally ban abortion in the country, the party ended up withdrawing its support of the law, due to pressure made by massive demonstrations.

The approval of such measures could have severe repercussions across Europe. Whilst Polish democracy remains in grave danger, the poor response from the European Union has greatly damaged its trustworthiness. Although the EU has opposed the new law, threatening Poland with exceptional sanctions, its reaction has been weak. Fortunately, popular pressure and social activism of a society fed up with its government´s actions, has managed yet again to make the difference.